Frank Samuel Herbert Kendon (1893–1959) was a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, a scholar of ancient and medieval Christianity and a published poet and novelist. He was commissioned to translate the Psalms for the New English Bible, a project that was first discussed by Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press in the 1930s and that began in earnest after World War II. Ill health prevented Kendon from finishing his translation and eventually a new translator was found to begin the task afresh so as to ensure uniformity of style. The committee overseeing the project felt that the translations Kendon has completed were so distinctive that they deserved to be issued as a literary work in their own right and Cambridge University Press published this volume as a memorial to him in 1963 in a limited edition of 1,000 copies. The book is now reissued to make Kendon's work available to a new generation of readers.